Recent developments in the telecommunications industries have produced telecommunications devices with increased capabilities. As a result, the complexity of interacting with these devices has increased. Headsets are now capable of doing more than being simple peripherals to legacy phones. For example, the headsets may control navigation through menus or files.
However, headset form factors do not lend themselves well to traditional user interface technologies like keypads and displays which are suited for complex user man-machine interface interactions. For example, the available space on the headset housing is limited. In the prior art, headset user interfaces typically consist of a small number of multifunction buttons and a multifunction visual indicator. This limited user interface makes access to more complex features and capabilities difficult and non-intuitive, particularly when the headset is being worn. Visual indicators have limited use while the headset is being worn. Multifunction buttons are non-intuitive and awkward to use.
As headsets become more “intelligent”, they offer advanced features and functionality. With increased features and functionality, these headsets require more complex user interfaces. However, the limited physical size of headset housings makes it desirable to minimize the number of or required size of the headset user interface mechanisms.
As a result, there is a need for improved methods and apparatuses for headset user interface input mechanisms.